Sydney's Olympic velodrome faces the end

Bill Shorten denies union deal

The Opposition Leader says he made no agreement for a construction firm to pay for union organisers when he headed the Victorian AWU. Courtesy ABC News24.

After appearing before the commission in July for two days of hearings, deals done during Mr Shorten's time as national and state secretary of the Australian Workers Union have come under the microscope in the past two weeks of hearings.

Bill Shorten says Labor will consider lowering the voting age if it wins the next election. Photo: Michelle Smith

Former Thiess executive Stephen Sasse and Julian Rzesniowiecki, however, both recalled Mr Shorten being involved in early discussions about the EastLink deal.

A spokesman for the commission said on Friday it had no intention of calling Mr Shorten again.

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Following that decision Mr Shorten, who has taken a hit politically from being called to appear before the commission and long-maintained it is a political witch-hunt, said, "the royal commission has been a waste of time".

"It's been a political smear and the truth of the matter is that it's costing nearly a million dollars a week in terms of some of the costs that they've run up. You know, really we've got to see what is it solving. They royal commission, I think, has been set up in part to smear its political rivals and I'm not surprised they're not recalling me," he said.

Also on Friday, the inquiry announced that it would end in November after almost two years, 170 hearings and after hearing from nearly 500 witnesses around the country.

In a statement the commission announced its last public hearing, on the National Union of Workers, would end on November 6, with Commissioner Dyson Heydon due to hand his final report to the Governor-General by December 31.